Jackson Pollock, creator of a vivid and distinct style of art which stands under the banner of Abstract Expressionism, is among the most widely recognized painters of the 20th century. His drip style paintings have become famous due to their eye-catching intensity as well as the widespread fanfare and criticism they received in the mass media. His life mirrored the intensity and controversy of his work, and his unexpected death (and wife, Lee Krasner) helped immortalize his complex persona. Here, we explore his life, his works, and the reactions to this artist.
Biography
Photo from 1949 Life Magazine Story
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Wyoming on January 28, 1912, he was the youngest of five boys. His father’s work as a surveyor exposed him to much of the picturesque scenery of the American Southwest. The flip side to that is that the young Pollock was relocated nine times before he lived on his own. He would carry the artistic inspiration and instability with him when he joined his brother Charles at the Art Students League in New York City in 1930. During this time Paul began going by his middle name, while he studied art under Thomas Hart Benton.
After graduating, Jackson was able to sustain himself through the height of the Great Depression after being hired in 1935 as an easel painter for the WPA Federal Art Project. However, his artistic development became more and more strained by his bouts of depression and alcoholism, so his brothers encouraged Jackson to undergo treatment. This introduced him to psychoanalysis and Jungian concepts between 1939 to 1941.
The mode of abstract symbolic expression he crafted culminated into a meteoric rise, known as “The Springs period.” It was during this period, in 1945, that he married his longtime girlfriend, Lee Krasner. The engine of his creation sped up faster and faster, and it took the art world by storm. His popularity exploded by the end of the ‘40s, resulting in a 1949 Life Magazine article that posed the question, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” He was not enthusiastically received by everyone however, something which is further addressed in the Critical Reception section.
It seems fair to say though that his shove into the international spotlight was a major factor that put an abrupt end to his drip paintings at the turn of the decade. Between 1951 and 1952, Pollock’s mind began a descent that was reflected in his paintings, which were almost exclusively done in black enamel, and showed a regression to an earlier style. He re-incorporated color to his work in 1952, but his output and health had begun to wane.
His lifelong struggle with alcoholism became a losing battle. He became distant from his wife, seeking solace with other women. The downward spiral ended on August 11, 1956 in an alcohol-influenced single-car collision, which claimed the life of the artist and one of his passengers, who was associated with his girlfriend. He was 44 years old[1][2] .
Artistic Style & Development
Going West (1934)
When thinking of Jackson Pollock, as with any other artist, a signature style or defined periods of the artist's life work comes to mind. Less often do we have the opportunity to analyze works that show a transition from one style to another. This is often because the other works do not hold that same clarity of purpose as they do at the times when the artistic engine is running at its greatest capacity. Even so, these transitional works can provide significant viewpoints into the underground of the creator's mind.
Before he developed his unique and intriguing technique of expression, Pollock studied art with Thomas Hart Benton and underwent Jungian psychotherapy to address his anger and alcoholism. The use of symbology and art is designed to facilitate communication between patient and therapist.
The peaks and valleys he experienced in his struggle against alcohol abuse are seen in drawings described as, "heavy-handed and banal". What emerged in the months that he was treated by Dr. Henderson for schizophrenia (according to said doctor) and other related issues, was a transference of his emotional problems into an iconography expressed in the style of Surrealism. Though some debate what diagnosis they could stamp on him, the psychotherapy had an undeniable effect on his work.
The Flame (1934-38)
Pollock's 1934 painting of a frontier journey, Going West, connects Thomas Benton's energetic style to his own roots in the American West: the scene may have come from a family photo of a bridge in Cody, Wyoming, where Pollock was born. The abstract swirling patterns evident in this landscape illustrate why Benton boasted that Pollock had found "the essential rhythms" of art with him[3] . Benton’s idyllic American style of painting was reflected in Pollock’s development of “curvilinear undulating rhythms[4] ”, which would follow him throughout his career. Jackson was also influenced by the Mexican muralists Orozco and Siqueiros, as well as Picasso, Miró, and the Surrealist movement.
Pollock's post-student work represents a surprising and radical shift in artistic direction. The free expression evident in The Flame was a clear step toward abstraction[5] . His prior mode of artistic approach soon vanished, and the time he spent searching for relief in Jungian psychology culminated in a breakthrough in his artistic endeavors in 1942, when the style he would become famous for emerged with fervid energy[6] . Lavender Mist epitomizes Pollock's ultimate style, in which physical action and emotional expression achieve balance. It is an astounding tapestry of color, poured, dripped, and flung on the canvas[7] .
Abstract Expressionism
Mural (1943)
In the late 1940s, Pollock was among a group of young, mostly New York painters who became known as abstract expressionists. They worked in a variety of styles, but generally shared a commitment to creating large-scale abstract works, an interest in Jungian psychological theories of the collective unconscious and a belief that expressiveness was achieved in part through the physical process of painting. Projecting the imprint of philosophy, art history, and the human experience into visual form, these artists incorporated both chance and control while painting with a physical immediacy and gesture. Pollock made his first wall-sized work in the mid 1940's called Mural. In 1947, he began pouring and dripping. These pieces typically took weeks to complete[8] .
A major icon of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock was known for his painting technique of pouring and dripping paint, this style was sometimes referred to as 'action painting.' After being institutionalized due to a nervous breakdown caused by his alcoholism, his work took on a semi-abstract style in 1938 which channeled primal forces into radically new artistic expression drawing influence from Picasso and Miro. This was Pollock's evolution as he was coming to terms with the inner turmoil compelling him to his work[9] .
During the early 1950s two divergent stylistic tendencies emerged within this movement: chromatic abstraction and gestural abstraction/action painting. Chromatic abstraction is seen in the coloristic paintings of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Gestural abstraction also called action painting is seen in the the brushed works of Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline as well as the poured paintings of Pollock[10] .
Influential Artists
Dans le tour du somneil (In the Tower of Sleep) (1938)
Andre Masson
Balagny, a village on Ile de France. In 1912 Masson was admitted to the Paul Baudoin studio at the 'Ecole National Superieure des Beaux-Arts'. In 1917 he was severely injured in the war and spent several months in an army hospital. In 1922 André Masson returned to Paris, where his art was influenced by André Derrain and Cubism. Then he joined the surrealist movement in 1924. Surrealism gave Masson access to the irrational and the psychological roots of art. With the help of 'écriture automatique', an automatic script, which is derived from the subconscious, Masson tried to explore the depths of the irrational and the psychological roots of art. Hence Masson followed this method and went on to develop his famous sand pictures made of glue and different colored sands.He is a celebrated father of abstract expressionism.
Untitled (1964)
Mark Rothko
An impressive figure among the New York School painters, Rothko moved through many artistic styles before finding his signature 1950s motif of soft, rectangular forms floating laid on a plain of color. Heavily influenced by mythology and philosophy, he was insistent that his art was filled with content, and brimming with ideas. A fierce champion of social revolutionary thought, and the right to self-expression, Rothko also expounded his views in numerous essays and critical reviews. Highly influenced by Nietzsche, Greek mythology, and his own Russian-Jewish heritage, Rothko's art was heavily doused in emotion that he showed through a range of styles that developed from figurative to abstract.
Rothko's early figurative work which included landscapes, still life's, figure studies, and portraits displayed an ability to mix Expressionism and Surrealism. His search for new forms of expression led to his color field paintings, which employed shimmering color to convey a sense of spirituality. Rothko maintained the social revolutionary ideas of his youth throughout his life. In particular he supported artist's total freedom of expression, which he felt was compromised by the market. This belief often put him against the art world establishment, forcing him to publicly respond to critics, and sometimes refuse commissions, sales and exhibitions.
Quotes
Pollock as pictured in the 1949 Life Magazine article
By Pollock
"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the fours sides and literally be in the painting."
"I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, ect. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added."
"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, ect., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."
About Pollock
His friend and patron, Alfonso Ossorio, described Pollock's artistic journey this way: "Here I saw a man who had both broken all the traditions of the past and unified them, who had gone beyond cubism, beyond Picasso and surrealism, beyond everything that had happened in art...his work expressed both action and contemplation."
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Biography
Paul Jackson Pollock was born in Wyoming on January 28, 1912, he was the youngest of five boys. His father’s work as a surveyor exposed him to much of the picturesque scenery of the American Southwest. The flip side to that is that the young Pollock was relocated nine times before he lived on his own. He would carry the artistic inspiration and instability with him when he joined his brother Charles at the Art Students League in New York City in 1930. During this time Paul began going by his middle name, while he studied art under Thomas Hart Benton.
After graduating, Jackson was able to sustain himself through the height of the Great Depression after being hired in 1935 as an easel painter for the WPA Federal Art Project. However, his artistic development became more and more strained by his bouts of depression and alcoholism, so his brothers encouraged Jackson to undergo treatment. This introduced him to psychoanalysis and Jungian concepts between 1939 to 1941.
The mode of abstract symbolic expression he crafted culminated into a meteoric rise, known as “The Springs period.” It was during this period, in 1945, that he married his longtime girlfriend, Lee Krasner. The engine of his creation sped up faster and faster, and it took the art world by storm. His popularity exploded by the end of the ‘40s, resulting in a 1949 Life Magazine article that posed the question, “Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” He was not enthusiastically received by everyone however, something which is further addressed in the Critical Reception section.
It seems fair to say though that his shove into the international spotlight was a major factor that put an abrupt end to his drip paintings at the turn of the decade. Between 1951 and 1952, Pollock’s mind began a descent that was reflected in his paintings, which were almost exclusively done in black enamel, and showed a regression to an earlier style. He re-incorporated color to his work in 1952, but his output and health had begun to wane.
His lifelong struggle with alcoholism became a losing battle. He became distant from his wife, seeking solace with other women. The downward spiral ended on August 11, 1956 in an alcohol-influenced single-car collision, which claimed the life of the artist and one of his passengers, who was associated with his girlfriend. He was 44 years old[1] [2] .
Artistic Style & Development
Before he developed his unique and intriguing technique of expression, Pollock studied art with Thomas Hart Benton and underwent Jungian psychotherapy to address his anger and alcoholism. The use of symbology and art is designed to facilitate communication between patient and therapist.
The peaks and valleys he experienced in his struggle against alcohol abuse are seen in drawings described as, "heavy-handed and banal". What emerged in the months that he was treated by Dr. Henderson for schizophrenia (according to said doctor) and other related issues, was a transference of his emotional problems into an iconography expressed in the style of Surrealism. Though some debate what diagnosis they could stamp on him, the psychotherapy had an undeniable effect on his work.
Pollock's 1934 painting of a frontier journey, Going West, connects Thomas Benton's energetic style to his own roots in the American West: the scene may have come from a family photo of a bridge in Cody, Wyoming, where Pollock was born. The abstract swirling patterns evident in this landscape illustrate why Benton boasted that Pollock had found "the essential rhythms" of art with him[3] . Benton’s idyllic American style of painting was reflected in Pollock’s development of “curvilinear undulating rhythms[4] ”, which would follow him throughout his career. Jackson was also influenced by the Mexican muralists Orozco and Siqueiros, as well as Picasso, Miró, and the Surrealist movement.
Pollock's post-student work represents a surprising and radical shift in artistic direction. The free expression evident in The Flame was a clear step toward abstraction[5] . His prior mode of artistic approach soon vanished, and the time he spent searching for relief in Jungian psychology culminated in a breakthrough in his artistic endeavors in 1942, when the style he would become famous for emerged with fervid energy[6] . Lavender Mist epitomizes Pollock's ultimate style, in which physical action and emotional expression achieve balance. It is an astounding tapestry of color, poured, dripped, and flung on the canvas[7] .
Abstract Expressionism
In the late 1940s, Pollock was among a group of young, mostly New York painters who became known as abstract expressionists. They worked in a variety of styles, but generally shared a commitment to creating large-scale abstract works, an interest in Jungian psychological theories of the collective unconscious and a belief that expressiveness was achieved in part through the physical process of painting. Projecting the imprint of philosophy, art history, and the human experience into visual form, these artists incorporated both chance and control while painting with a physical immediacy and gesture. Pollock made his first wall-sized work in the mid 1940's called Mural. In 1947, he began pouring and dripping. These pieces typically took weeks to complete[8] .
A major icon of Abstract Expressionism, Jackson Pollock was known for his painting technique of pouring and dripping paint, this style was sometimes referred to as 'action painting.' After being institutionalized due to a nervous breakdown caused by his alcoholism, his work took on a semi-abstract style in 1938 which channeled primal forces into radically new artistic expression drawing influence from Picasso and Miro. This was Pollock's evolution as he was coming to terms with the inner turmoil compelling him to his work[9] .
During the early 1950s two divergent stylistic tendencies emerged within this movement: chromatic abstraction and gestural abstraction/action painting. Chromatic abstraction is seen in the coloristic paintings of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. Gestural abstraction also called action painting is seen in the the brushed works of Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline as well as the poured paintings of Pollock[10] .
Influential Artists
Mark Rothko
An impressive figure among the New York School painters, Rothko moved through many artistic styles before finding his signature 1950s motif of soft, rectangular forms floating laid on a plain of color. Heavily influenced by mythology and philosophy, he was insistent that his art was filled with content, and brimming with ideas. A fierce champion of social revolutionary thought, and the right to self-expression, Rothko also expounded his views in numerous essays and critical reviews. Highly influenced by Nietzsche, Greek mythology, and his own Russian-Jewish heritage, Rothko's art was heavily doused in emotion that he showed through a range of styles that developed from figurative to abstract.Rothko's early figurative work which included landscapes, still life's, figure studies, and portraits displayed an ability to mix Expressionism and Surrealism. His search for new forms of expression led to his color field paintings, which employed shimmering color to convey a sense of spirituality. Rothko maintained the social revolutionary ideas of his youth throughout his life. In particular he supported artist's total freedom of expression, which he felt was compromised by the market. This belief often put him against the art world establishment, forcing him to publicly respond to critics, and sometimes refuse commissions, sales and exhibitions.
Quotes
Pollock as pictured in the 1949 Life Magazine article
By Pollock
"My painting does not come from the easel. I prefer to tack the unstretched canvas to the hard wall or the floor. I need the resistance of a hard surface. On the floor I am more at ease. I feel nearer, more part of the painting, since this way I can walk around it, work from the fours sides and literally be in the painting.""I continue to get further away from the usual painter's tools such as easel, palette, brushes, ect. I prefer sticks, trowels, knives and dripping fluid paint or a heavy impasto with sand, broken glass or other foreign matter added."
"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of 'get acquainted' period that I see what I have been about. I have no fear of making changes, destroying the image, ect., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."
About Pollock
His friend and patron, Alfonso Ossorio, described Pollock's artistic journey this way: "Here I saw a man who had both broken all the traditions of the past and unified them, who had gone beyond cubism, beyond Picasso and surrealism, beyond everything that had happened in art...his work expressed both action and contemplation."External Links
Eccentricities and Vanities
Masson Biography
Rothko Biography
References
Images are used in accordance with fair use practices.If you hold copyright to an image, and do not agree that its use accords with fair use practices,please contact the wiki's creator and organizer.